A Plant Story

Posted On April 23, 2014

While Linda and I were visiting Jo-Anne Broad to visit Alice the cat and her kittens in Jo-Anne’s home in Plaster Rock I admired an enormous and beautiful Christmas Cactus which dominates a corner in the living room.
 
It turns out that this is a plant with a history! Back in 1946 Tourney and Freda Broad bought a farm in Kilburn. Marion Chapman, another resident of Kilburn, had this Christmas Cactus that she felt needed a new home. Her young kids were eating the flowers and she was worried that they might get sick, so she gave it to Freda.
 

It graced the Broad farmhouse for many years. After Freda and Tourney had passed on, Gary inherited the plant and he and Jo-Anne have had it ever since.
 

It continues to grow and thrive, gracing the Broad’s home with its lovely blossoms.
 

Many common houseplants are poisonous to pets and children, but Marion could have kept her plant because Christmas Cactuses are not toxic to either pets or kids.
 

A Broad still lives in Tourney and Freda’s Kilburn farm house… Gary’s nephew Timmy Broad lives there today. But Freda’s Christmas Cactus, like her children, has moved on.